(ash! ash!)
"What are you two talking in riddles about?" Lava suddenly felt like she couldn't keep up with their train of thought.
Texas rubbed her forehead.
"That storyteller really is hard to figure out."
"It's strange in a way I can't put into words... What exactly feels wrong?" Kroos and Melantha were troubled as well.
Lava looked at the thoughtful crowd and scratched her head.
Why did it feel like she was the only one who wasn't up to par...
Lava didn't think that feeling was cool at all.
Bai Ye had just been about to explain when a melodious bell rang out.
"Dong—"
The bell seemed to resound across the entire town, echoing without end.
"The bell's ringing? The bell's ringing! Hey, hurry and wake everyone at home! Move it!"
Before Bai Ye and the others could react, the town's residents erupted into activity the moment they heard the bell.
"What's going on?" Lava's eyes widened.
The bell did not stop. It continued ringing over and over.
By the time the bell rang for the third time, every resident in town had fled.
"It should be an alarm bell..." Bai Ye watched the fleeing townspeople before turning and walking in the opposite direction.
"Bai Ye, where are we going?" Texas followed behind him.
"They should be fleeing from something. We need to take a look—haven't you noticed? This is the change I mentioned." Bai Ye explained.
Lava suddenly understood.
"You mean our presence triggered some kind of mechanism?"
"That's possible too. For example, this world might reject outsiders, and this method could be meant to eliminate intruders... But I don't think it's an exclusion mechanism."
As he walked, Bai Ye said,
"Look, these villagers know what the bell means. That means this isn't some temporary defense mechanism created